


Of Sweets and Angels

by wispsofcolour



Category: VIXX
Genre: Drug Addiction, Gen, Hunger Games AU, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, PLEASE NOTE: all the pairings are purely PLATONIC because they are all CHILDREN, girl!Hakyeon, hoo boy those are a lot of not-great tags, implied PTSD, implied depression, there is some tiny tiny tiny neo but only if you squint super hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 08:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12860508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wispsofcolour/pseuds/wispsofcolour
Summary: Sanghyuk wonders if an angel has come to take him to Heaven.





	Of Sweets and Angels

**Author's Note:**

> **Please read the content warnings in the tags!!!**  
>  Yet another crosspost from my writing blog on Tumblr.  
> Hakyeon’s girl name, Miyeon, comes from a fic I read with girl!hakyeon (plus I feel like it’s quite a popular name to give to her).

Sanghyuk is three years old and he is very very cold. So cold that he can’t feel his toes or his nose. His dad had always told him to stay put and wait for him if he ever got lost but that was over an hour ago and the sun had long set over the marketplace. It had been fun to see the market for the first time with his big sisters but now it is dark and Sanghyuk is alone and scared. He curls himself into a tighter ball under the basket he had hid under and wonders when his dad will come get him. Suddenly, someone upturns the basket and the cold wind presses sharp knives into his skin. The light of the street lamp hurts his eyes.

“Are you okay? What is your name?”

It is a girl’s voice, kind and warm. Sanghyuk looks up and sees a figure wreathed in light. Sanghyuk wonders if an angel has come to take him to Heaven.

Half an hour later, Sanghyuk is wrapped in blankets, still shivering as a big girl fusses over him while her mother warms him a cup of milk. She tells him that her name is Miyeon and that she is eight years old. In the dim firelight, Sanghyuk sees that Miyeon’s hair is black and frames her small tan face. Her eyes twinkle when she smiles at him and Sanghyuk smiles back, feeling warm for the first time. She is definitely an angel.

* * *

Miyeon is twelve years old and she is terrified. It is the day of Reaping and the very first one where her name is in the Reaping ball. She stands in the back of the roped of area in the District Square with the other twelve-year-olds, trying to keep her knees from knocking together. She looks out into the crowd, trying to spot Sanghyuk. If it were any other year, she would be standing with him, safe from the Reaping, and holding his hand to keep him close. Now she is standing alone.

Miyeon is scared for herself but she is more scared for Sanghyuk. Who will take care of him if she is not there? Sanghyuk is small, quiet, and easy to overlook. His family is so big and has so many mouths to feed that he is often forgotten. She tries not to begrudge them for accidentally leaving him in the marketplace in the middle of winter four years ago but it is hard to when she remembers how hard he was shivering when she found him.

Miyeon’s only family is her mother but she is has never been forgotten. There are nights that they go to sleep with a horrible hollow feeling in their bellies but she is warm and safe in her mother’s arms. Miyeon thinks that her mother will get along fine without her. After all, she is friendly with the neighbours and has a steady job at the cow farm. She will mourn Miyeon like she mourned Miyeon’s father but she will get by alright with the help of friends. Sanghyuk has no one but Miyeon.

As the mayor re-tells the history of Panem, Miyeon feels her fear and worry grow until her heart threatens to jump out of her throat. The District escort says “Ladies first!” and crosses over to a Reaping ball to dip her hand in. In a moment of blind panic, Miyeon grabs the hand closest to her. She needs to hold on to something. Anything.

The District escort calls out a name. It is not her. She is safe.

She doesn’t realise that she is holding someone’s hand until she looks down. She tries to let go of the hand discreetly, blushing as she does. The hand does not let go. It holds on tighter.

Miyeon looks up and sees that the owner of the hand is a boy. His face is pale and he looks just as scared as she felt a minute ago. He does not seem to see her. She lets him hold her hand. It is only fair.

A minute later, the grip on her hand loosens and she knows that the boy is safe too. When the Reaping is over, they look at each other and quickly look away. Miyeon feels herself blush again and quickly hurries away, feeling silly for panicking. That night, she feeds Sanghyuk some blueberries and pinches his cheeks to celebrate. Sanghyuk protests at the cheek-pinching but he enjoys the blueberries. Sanghyuk prefers spending Reaping at her house because he gets blueberries.

The next day, the boy from the District Square sits next to her during lunchtime at school. His name is Taekwoon.

* * *

Taekwoon is eighteen years old and he wonders if his hearing is failing him. He is almost certain that the District escort just called out Miyeon’s name. This is impossible.

Every year since his first, Taekwoon and Miyeon have held hands during the Reaping. Secretly, Taekwoon believes that it keeps them safe from the Arena. They have never spoken about this.

He thinks that maybe if he holds her hand tighter, it will turn out to not have been true. But Miyeon wrenches her hand out of his grip and walks steadily to the top of the stage. Their eyes meet and he knows what she is saying. Their promise. The promise he gave to her the night before their second Reaping.

Take care of Sanghyuk. No matter what, take care of Sanghyuk.

The three of them are best friends, but sometimes, it feels like Miyeon is Sanghyuk’s mother. Taekwoon cares deeply for Sanghyuk but he does not smother him the way Miyeon does. He does not cuddle him or pinch his cheeks like she does. He protects him from bullies and likes slipping him some of his precious sweets, bought with what little pocket money he earns. Taekwoon would have cared for Sanghyuk without the promise anyway but now it becomes his mission.

It falls apart when the District escort calls out Sanghyuk’s name.

* * *

Miyeon is eighteen years old and she has never felt more miserable in her life. How is she supposed to kill the little boy shivering under the basket?

The boy in question is currently gorging himself on the marvellous feast set out before him, resolutely trying not to meet her eyes. There is a bit of sauce staining his chin. Miyeon fights the urge to wipe it off like she always does.

Miyeon and Sanghyuk avoid each other for the entire week that they spend in the Training Centre. They train with their mentors and are remade by their stylists. Miyeon scores a seven in training. Sanghyuk scores a three.

Sanghyuk’s mentor is called Wonsik. At first glance, he seems terrifying. His dark brows are permanently drawn together over his droopy eyes and he does not smile. A closer look shows that his yellowish skin sags over his bony body and that the bags under his eyes don’t go away. A morphling addict.

Miyeon’s mentor is called Jaehwan. She remembers him. He won his Games two years ago, at the age of fourteen. He is only a boy, younger than her, even now. Jaehwan is loud and obnoxious and never ever stops talking. His perpetual smile never quite reaches his sad eyes.

On the night before the first day of the Games, Miyeon goes to look for Sanghyuk. They agree to stop being friends, to make it easier for the both of them in the Arena. They share one final hug and Miyeon kisses Sanghyuk on the forehead.

* * *

Sanghyuk is thirteen years old and he is very very scared. He hugs his knees closer to his body and hopes that he doesn’t fall out of the tree he is hiding in. Earlier that day, he turned and ran into the woods the moment the gong rang. He remembers looking over his shoulder and seeing Miyeon run towards the Cornucopia.

He tries not to think of Miyeon but it is hard when he is so scared and so cold. Miyeon is the person who always saves him from being scared and cold. But now she doesn’t come. She cannot ever come.

Sanghyuk manages to hide for a week, surviving on blueberries and hoping that he doesn’t freeze to death in his sleep. And then he is found. It is the boy from District 8. Sanghyuk remembers him. He has been the most popular tribute ever since the Games began, winning over the crowd with his half-moon eyes and dimpled smile. Now he is not smiling. His half-moon eyes are narrowed as he chases Sanghyuk through the woods.

Sanghyuk runs until he cannot run anymore. He falls to the ground and the District 8 boy pins him down. Scared, desperate, and out of options, Sanghyuk scrabbles for something, anything, that will help him. His hand meets a rock.

The rock finds its way into the tribute’s skull. Once. Twice. Three times. The cannon sounds and the tribute is not so handsome anymore. Something shifts inside of Sanghyuk.

* * *

Taekwoon is eighteen years old and he sits in his dimly lit shack of a house, his eyes glued to the fuzzy television screen. He has spent every free moment in front of it ever since the Games began.

A week into the Games, tributes start dying messily and violently, hunted by an unseen figure in the shadows. But Taekwoon always sees the dark glint of reflected moonlight, hidden in the bushes. Sanghyuk’s eyes are empty.

* * *

Miyeon is eighteen years old and she is fighting violently against her better judgement. Ever since the Games began, she has been spying on the Career pack, sometimes stealing food from them when they aren’t looking.

But now she is conflicted. The Career pack is hunting Sanghyuk whose kill list has grown too long to stay unnoticed. Miyeon’s first thought is to warn him. She knows that she cannot. There is no such thing as friendship in the Arena. But Sanghyuk is more than a mere friend to Miyeon. She cannot stop looking after the little boy shivering under the basket, not even now. She notices his eyes a second too late.

* * *

Sanghyuk is thirteen years old and he is holding a dying angel. His eyes are no longer empty; they are filled with tears and the sight of her blood on his hands. He whispers broken apologies trying to staunch the flow of red. She asks him for a promise.

Win for her. Win for them. Win for Taekwoon back at home. And tell him…tell him…

Sanghyuk promises and gives Miyeon one last kiss on her forehead. The cannon sounds.

* * *

Sanghyuk is thirteen years old and he is the victor of the 66th Hunger Games. He goes back to District 10 with more money than he can ever spend. His family comes to live with him in the big house in the Victors’ Village and never forgets him again. He never goes to sleep hungry and has all the sweets he wants. None of them are from Taekwoon.

Sanghyuk can’t find it in himself to blame Taekwoon. Not when he agrees with everything that Taekwoon doesn’t say to him. Will never say to him.

Sanghyuk cannot sleep. There is too much blood. There is blood when he closes his eyes, staining the insides of his eyelids a deep dark red. There is blood in his dreams, pooling all around him as Miyeon dies and Taekwoon watches silently, accusing with his eyes. There is blood on his hands, caked on and dried. No matter how much he washes them, it never goes away. Trying to scratch it off just brings out more blood and now his nostrils are filled with the smell of blood as well. Sanghyuk is always cold and no one comes to save him.

Wonsik is the only person who understands, having been in the Arena himself. His scary-looking mentor turns out to have an incredibly kind soul. But he is almost never here, preferring to be lost in the blissful world of morphling. Sanghyuk wants to join him but he feels like he doesn’t deserve an escape. Still, Sanghyuk appreciates his former mentor's gentle company, even when the Wonsik is not really with him.

Until Wonsik overdoses one night.

* * *

Sanghyuk is twenty two years old and he is standing in the roped off area in the District Square as the District escort dips her hand into the near-empty Reaping ball. When Jaehwan is Reaped for the 3rd Quarter Quell, Sanghyuk volunteers in his place. He leaves a sweet for Taekwoon before he goes to the Capitol.

He doesn’t fight very hard against the hulking beast that finds him on the second day of the Games. He thinks that it is perhaps poetic justice that he should meet his end at the jaws of a monster. After all, it takes one to kill one. As the beast sinks its teeth into his skin, Sanghyuk thinks he sees an angel wreathed by light, coming to take him to Heaven. He doesn’t hear the cannon sound.

* * *

Taekwoon is twenty seven years old. He moves to District 4 after the Second Rebellion and likes to take his fishing boat out to sea during monsoon season.


End file.
